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Within the last 19 months I and my partner traveled through whole Central America, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia by hitch-hiking (see http://www.FollowTheRoad.com ). Cars, trucks and pick-ups transported us over the earth, sailing vessels over the sea. We are backpackers, sleeping in a tent or with locals, which often invite us. We live a vegetarian lifestyle, because we know its benefits for health. Often we live pure vegan, as I have a lactose incompatibility. This article is meant to motivate any vegan or vegetarian, eager to see the world, simply to take their path, and follow it without any worries about a proper nutrition. Here are my suggestions, how you can live happily as a vegan or vegetarian on a short or long term journey. First and foremost, you need joy in cooking. Second, you need to have the right equipment. Any important food, like fruits and vegetables, are available in all those countries we have been to. Thus, don’t worry about vitamins, minerals or proteins. Just go and have fun!
A small, simple functioning, and light to maintain camping stove is absolutely necessary. With Primus Omnifuel we found one, which ensures us anywhere fuel, because it even works with gasoline. For preparing delicious meals carry following utensils: - One to two pots. The grater works fantastic for preparing juicy salads from raw root vegetables like carrots, red beetroot, potatoes, as well as for cucumbers and cabbage. The cutting board helps while preparing vegetables and fruits in other ways, ensuring that you will not end up eating dirt. Tupperware is necessary especially if you use only one pot, because that way you can keep the already prepared part of the meal hot and clean.
All over Central America, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia you can easily purchase fresh vegetables and fruits. Basic food components like root vegetables, onions, celery, plantain as well as fruits like bananas, oranges, and often papaya can be found in most little stores. Bread in general is available, but often it is made of white wheat flower. Dark bread you can find mostly in supermarkets, but this is industrially produced, and often traveled a long way. Delicious anyway, just sometimes you get a feel of eating a mixture of chemicals. Be careful in Colombia, as there most of the bread contains milk, butter, or cheese. I found it actually quite hard to find any nice bread in Colombia. Rice and pasta are widely available. So are dried black or red beans. In Cuba it is a different way. In big cities you can find usually a market, where all nutrition necessities are provided. They even are very cheap in comparison to any other mentioned countries, and usually organic. In villages and small towns you might have trouble finding any of these. Often you have to run around the streets and look into other peoples huge bags. You notice such sellers easily, as everybody is searching for something and will look what that man has got in his sack. Sometimes it helps if you simply run around the houses and ask private people, where to find what. Bread in bigger cities is available without problems. In small towns and villages you do not find bakeries easily, and if you do, it might be they will not sell you bread because of the Cuban distribution system. In that case, try the bakeries again in the evening, as then usually they give you what is left, as they will not use it for the next day. An important issue for a traveler is to eat food, which grows in the country. Try to eat as much local fruits and vegetables as possible, as that way you ensure a good health, standing the climate conditions without trouble. Anyway, it is far more interesting to eat local food, as you do not only taste something new, you also learn how to prepare those delicious nutrients. Wild food components, such as chaya leaves, are available in some regions of Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Walk through fruit and vegetable markets carefully. That way you discover unusual plants and leaves. Sellers will always welcome your questions concerning their items, and will happily share with you recipes for an excellent preparation. Difficulties you will face in search for nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and oats. The only real paradise we found concerning the availability of these foods was Mexico. In Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua it was exceptional difficult to purchase any of these. For Cuba applies the same. Other Central American countries, Venezuela, and Colombia offer some of these, but you have to search for them.
When you are traveling a long time, spices will help you to keep up your happy spirit. Spices are our steady companion, and we usually carry at least salt, pepper, oregano, and curry. Often our collection of spices rises up to 12 or more, containing besides the general ones dill, cayenne, thyme, herbs of Provence, rosemary…We love adding different spices in each meal we prepare. Using different spices makes the same ingredients vary significantly in taste. Vegan bouillon cubes are a great addition to the mentioned spices. They allow making a wonderful veggie soup, and give rice, pasta, potatoes or any other vegetables a good aroma. Vegetable or olive oil is useful for frying from time to time. We carry a very small bottle containing olive oil for such occasions. If the oil finishes, we ask in restaurants or locals we are staying with to fill it up. In some cases we buy vegetable oil, because olive oil is hardly available and expensive.
Don’t worry, be happy – that applies also to your protein intake while traveling. Vegans and vegetarians know well that by eating sufficient grains, nuts, seeds, greens, or legumes, they will not face any problems concerning strength and health. Besides snacking passionately nuts on our way, we love to eat legumes, or beans. Lentils are the most convenient when going for an easy preparation. They do not need to be soaked, and are ready after 20 minutes boiling. The preparation of other beans, such as black or red dried beans, needs more effort. They need to be soaked about 8 hours (if not parboiled before soaking). How to soak beans while backpacking? There is an easy way. Carry always an empty half liter bottle or an empty peanut butter jar (preferably plastic). Sort out the beans before soaking, because usually they contain stones in all mentioned countries. It might be the beans you purchased are dirty, so wash them shortly, and pour the water. Then put the beans in the jar, fill the jar full of water, and close tight. Put the jar vertical in your backpack, but before doing so, wrap toilet paper and two plastic bags around the jar. That way you avoid possible spilling water to wet your backpack. Depending on your preferences, you might start soaking the beans in the morning and carry the jar through the day, boiling your beans for dinner. Another opportunity is to soak beans overnight and boil them in the morning. Either you eat them hot for breakfast or you carry them and later enjoy them cold. After 8 hours soaking beans, it takes 20-30 minutes until they are done. There are days when we have absolutely no time to prepare hot food. Other days we are too lazy for cooking anything. Those days we prefer to buy a can of ready-to-eat beans, enjoying them together with raw vegetables and bread. Unfortunately, not in each of those countries beans in a can are available. Thus, before we definitely quit cooking for a day, we check the stores and buy a middle sized can of beans. In case you like this idea, read the ingredients carefully, because sometimes they contain animal fats. A change in diet is always enriching. You can choose for your protein intake between mentioned beans and lentils as well as soy meat (carne de soya), chick peas, oats, or wild greens, such as chaya leaves. Dark, multi-cereal bread is a great protein source, too, but few times available. Soy protein powder mixed with oats, nuts, seeds, and raisins provided us with a power meal many times where nothing else was available. I recommend taking some, in case you travel in areas where there is no food supply, you have to save on gasoline, or little water is available.
Oatmeal is our usual breakfast, and to make it more delicious, we add all what we have: peanuts, sesame seeds, linseeds (often as powder), raisins, cinnamon, salt, and sugar. On top we eat bananas in slices, papaya, apple, or even sometimes oranges. We prefer to eat our oatmeal hot. Depending on the circumstances, we eat either during lunch time or in the evening our main mail. Here is a list of different dishes we often repeat: Regular meals Cold meals Special meals Around a fireplace The average cooking time is 1 to 1,5 hours, including the preparation and dish washing. In the listing above you find meals we repeat regularly during our trip, often far away from any water supply. We generally use about 2-3 liters water per meal. If water is rare, half to three-quarters of a liter is enough, i.e. for a soup. Vegan dining in Central America is a challenge. Meat (Spanish: carne) concerns only red meat, but does not exclude chicken, sausage, or fish. Thus be precise when ordering a meal. My suggestion is to either ask for the exact dish you want (i.e. rice, beans, salad, plantain), or use following phrases to explain what you do not eat: "I am vegetarian. I do not eat meat, no chicken, sausage, fish, and no milk products like milk, butter, cheese, cream." (Spanish: "Soy vegetariano (male)/ vegetariana (female). No como carne, ni pollo, chorizo, pescado. Tampoco como productos de leche como leche, mantequilla, queso, y crema.") After this explanation listen what they have to offer and give them clear instructions what you wish to be served. When the order was placed, make sure that what they will serve you does not contain any animal products. Be careful with soups, because in mentioned countries vegetable soups are usually made with chicken or similar bouillon. If you cannot accept this, better keep away from veggie soups. WATER Food you can miss for a while, but water can become a critical issue if not available. Thus, especially when cooking yourself, you have to assure carrying with you the necessary water supply. Nobody wants to end up with cooked food but no water left for drinking. In general every adult should consume at least 2 liters of water a day. Traveling and activities like hiking, especially in hot countries, requires an adult to consume at least 3-4 liters a day. That counts only for drinking. For two people that sums up to 6-8 liters in total. The amount of water you need for cooking is up to 2 liters, adding half a liter for washing vegetables and dishes. Counting all together two adults easily need 8-10 liters a day, which sounds quite a lot. That is no reason to worry, because nobody has to carry all that water the whole day around. Our plastic bottles hold up to 4 liters of water. Though less than half of what we need, we use to refill them constantly. One chance to fill up the bottles is given in public bathrooms, where we are using a plastic box as help because sinks usually are too small to fit bottles inside. Restaurants, shops or local people regularly give us opportunities to get fresh water, often they even provide purified water directly from the Garafon (20 liter bottle). Once we are uncertain about the water quality, especially when using water from public pipes, we prefer to purify it. We purify water with disinfectant for water and food (Spanish: desinfectante de agua y alimentos), which we found in Chedraui supermarkets in Mexico for US $1, and even cheaper in Guatemala. Purifying liquids are available in supermarkets or pharmacies. Belize has got only chlorine bleach, which is OK, in case you do not mind the swimming pool taste. In Belize rain water is widely available, thus we hardly had to purify at all. Panama and Costa Rica have good water, so you can drink straight from the pipe. We recommend smelling pipe water. If it has an intense, rotten smell avoid this water source. In case this is the only water you can get, take it along, purify it, and if possible boil it before you make use of the water. Better of course is to search elsewhere or spend once in a while money for mineral water, available in most stores. Bring, if possible, your purifier tablets or liquid from your home country. That way you avoid searching when arriving at your travel destiny. Have you ever considered eating salad while backpacking? Tourism information usually do not recommend it. Nobody has to avoid salad during traveling. Just wash the salad in a public bathroom, put it in a plastic bag (preferably without holes), fill water inside and the needed amount of purifier liquid on top. Close the bag, shake it well, and let it stay for about 10 to 15 minutes. Shake again, open and wash with your hands shortly through the salad leaves. Pour the water away and enjoy your fresh, green salad. The way we use to drink and eat did not cause us any diarrhea in all those countries we have traveled so far. Our average budget is US $10 a day. That amount includes food, toiletries, and Internet. I hope this information is useful for any vegan or vegetarian traveler. Nobody has to worry about a proper nutrition while visiting those countries, provided that you cook for yourself. For further questions concerning traveling as a vegan, please contact me via the contact form in the menu ABOUT. Author: Katja Lachmann | |||||||||
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copyright © 2003 - 2010 Katja Lachmann
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